Iran Nuke Deal & Spheres of Influence

Caught up in the nuclear agreement fanfare, the mainstream media has so far missed the deal’s ramifications vis-à-vis the Iranian nuclear program’s main objective: power projection. No better group to gauge this than its close ally, Hezbollah.

Indeed, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was one of the more conspicuous players on the sidelines of the negotiation. His group’s voice was loud and clear:

“What was achieved through this agreement is a major victory for Iran and to all the people of the region and it is a defeat for the enemies of these people.”

That’s Hezbollah showing its softer side: in an earlier article in Lebanon’s Daily Star, Nasrallah made clear that regional war was the only alternative to rapprochement between Iran and the West.

Then there’s the effect on Syria. According to a report in Ha’aretz, the Hezbollah website Al-Manar published an analysis to the effect that, after Iran, Syria has most to gain from the nuclear agreement. The paper quotes an additional Hezbollah-affiliated source that

“In Damascus, they believe now that there is no longer any chance of military action against President Bashar Assad and his regime and that any future solution will be political or diplomatic.”

That Tehran’s allies would be major beneficiaries of a nuclear deal was already picked up some time ago by Foreign Policy, which highlighted Hezbollah’s support for the agreement and quoted Nasrallah as saying that “our side” (meaning the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis) would be “stronger locally, regionally, and internationally” as a result of an understanding between Iran and the P5+1.

Here’s hoping that in the near future media pundits take a closer look at the wider strategic ramifications of the Iran nuclear deal. The clues are already there…